BACKSTORY
Velura was raised by successful Eshkanti merchants whose business operated out of the city of Xian and specialized in the trade of recreational and recreational luxuries like fine food and drink, recreational drugs where they were legal(and sometimes where they were not), and the services of courtesans under their employ. The nature of their family's trade both stemmed from and was supported by their favored deity, a god/dess of pleasure, passion, and desire called Carnalexi. For most of her family, it was just good business sense to curry favor with a deity who favored the things they trafficked in, but for Velura, she felt there was more to her faith than simple pragmatism. The people of the Sunset Isles desperately needed reprieve from the terrors and torments they were surrounded by, not simply for escapism but to fortify the spirit. The Red Tide would find no purchase in the souls of men if the desires it sought to exploit were already satisfied. The taste of better things would open the eyes of the oppressed and show that they could strive for a better life, and that it was worth the struggle to achieve it. With this revelation(which she attributed it to Carnalexi herself), she focused on learning the arts of a priestess, largely self-taught from the family's store of old religious tomes, and achieving a strong enough communion with the goddess to acquire divine magics. She also convinced her parents to support her path and travel with their caravans so that she could spread the teachings of Carnalexi, with the promise that spreading the deity's doctrines would bring them more customers and greater wealth.